Li Wei pondered for a moment and reluctantly persuaded softly: "Your Majesty, this is not how business is done. You can't just have authority without credibility. You also know about the previous treasure banknotes. It was caused by the court's credit problems. You are like this I don’t mind seizing the Chamber of Commerce’s assets for my own use, but others will definitely complain in their hearts.”
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him. Anyone else was clearly complaining about this boy!
"Then what do you think we should do? Are we going to let the Director of Business Administration directly print it?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said that in the past, he had directly printed banknotes to reward generals. Later, Li Wei made it clear to him the dangers of printing banknotes indiscriminately, and he did not want to print them directly.
"Actually, it's not impossible. How about this? Didn't I mention the bond issue before? How about we take this opportunity to give it a try?" Li Wei suggested.
Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly frowned: "You mean to let us borrow money from you?"
"No, the Ministry of Household Affairs publicly issues bonds on behalf of the imperial court. The Minghuang Chamber of Commerce, the General Affairs Department, or others can purchase them and pay a small amount of interest."
"Then how much interest are you going to charge?"
Li Wei thought for a while and said: "The annual interest rate is five percent. I can ask the bank to cooperate with the interest rate cut. In this way, the interest rate on the bonds will be higher, and people will definitely be more willing to buy the bonds. Of course, this time, we can also directly ask the chamber of commerce to buy it. It’s just a matter of going through the process to get familiar with it.”
After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "Ha, you think we don't know how to settle accounts? You are making money on my head!"
Although he owns 70% of the Chamber of Commerce and gives most of the interest to himself, Li Wei and Shen Jing still hold 30% and can also get some profits from it.
Seeing him looking like he had seen through everything, Li Wei couldn't help but curl his lips secretly, "If you really knew how to settle accounts, you wouldn't say such things!"
"Your Majesty, it's not what you think. You should also know that the value of new banknotes is very high now, but as the banknote printing speed increases, the banknotes will return to the normal price sooner or later. At this time, the value of the banknotes is very high. If the debt is paid in treasure banknotes, and the banknotes depreciate in value later and then repaid, then the profit won’t be 5%, but two or three times the amount!”
Li Wei explained patiently, and then told him about his secret purchase of silver coins.
Nowadays, treasure banknotes can always be exchanged for three or four taels of silver. If you buy silver now, when the speed of money printing catches up in the future, and the treasure banknotes return to the official price of one tael of silver, you will make a lot of money!
After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was shocked: "Can you still do this?"
Li Wei nodded lightly, but then emphasized: "Of course you can't do this often, you still have to maintain the stability of the treasure banknotes!"
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about the matter, and his expression became serious. This was simply more efficient than robbing him directly. He had to charge someone with a crime and try him when he ransacked the house. But if Li Wei did this, anyone with a slower mind would I have lost all my money and I can’t figure out why I lost it!
"How much money have you received in total so far?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.
Li Wei did a rough calculation and said, "It's probably more than two million taels."
"hiss!"
Zhu Yuanzhang gasped. The entire Ming Dynasty's tax revenue, excluding land taxes, was about the same amount. Li Wei had earned the entire Ming Dynasty's entire year's commercial tax, salt, tea, etc. in one go!
"Will there be any problems if we do this?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked seriously.
Li Wei smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, most of the people who can save money are wealthy people. Even if they understand it, nothing will happen to them. Just like your Majesty robbed half of the Shen family's property, the Shen family not only did not complain, On the contrary, I would like to thank you profusely!"
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes narrowed and he thought for a moment, and it seemed that this was indeed the case. If you robbed the last morsel of food from the poor, he would definitely fight you, but if you robbed half of the rich's property, although they would also be resentful, they would still be resentful. You will never dare to mess around easily.
After thinking about this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, but then he reacted and angrily shouted: "Nonsense! The Shen family donated it to us voluntarily, and we also gave them an official title. How can it be a robbery?"
Li Wei was stunned, his face twitched, and after being silent for a long time, he cupped his hands and said without conscience: "What your Majesty said is absolutely true!"
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted dissatisfied, and then asked: "What should I do with these silver coins? Can I spend them directly?"
He is really short of money now. He cannot print money directly and cannot fight wars.
"That's right, I plan to set up a gold and silver counter in the bank specifically for gold and silver transactions. The banker can print money to buy these gold and silver. From now on, gold and silver and other objects will be used as anchors for treasure banknotes. Banknotes are expensive and silver is cheap. Then issue banknotes and collect banknotes; otherwise, collect banknotes in gold and silver. In addition, by adjusting interest rates and other means, the stability of the treasure banknotes can be maintained! These silver coins can be sold and exchanged for treasure banknotes at the appropriate time."
Li Wei slowly explained his plan.
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened carefully to this, he nodded, and then said cautiously:
"From now on, the affairs of the manager must be reported clearly to me, and we must give my permission before doing anything!"
"Yes, I obey your order!"
Li Wei was not surprised at all by this. He knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was a person with a strong sense of centralization and grasped all matters at once. However, these things were not easy to figure out. In the end, he, the time traveler, had to make the decision.
Mu Ying listened blankly for a long time, feeling as if she heard something extraordinary, but she didn't understand it.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him and said sternly: "Don't tell anyone what happened today!"
"Yes, your Majesty, don't worry!" Mu Ying replied quickly. In fact, he couldn't explain it even if he wanted to.
After Li Wei repeatedly promised that he would never suffer a loss in issuing bonds, Zhu Yuanzhang finally agreed to the matter and asked Ru Taisu to cooperate with him.
Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief. After talking for so long, he finally didn't waste his words.
After leaving the palace, he immediately arranged for the bank to open gold and silver trading counters, so that wealthy households with silver at home would have a place to exchange treasure banknotes on a large scale, and no longer had to go around to buy treasure banknotes privately.
However, the prices of the gold and silver counters he set up are also floating. Gold and silver are equivalent to a kind of goods. As the banker prints a large amount of money, the price of gold and silver will gradually return to normal.
In addition, after negotiating with Ru Taisu, he also had the Ministry of Accounts list Ming Dynasty's first bond, with a term of one year and an interest rate of 5%. While issuing the bond, he ordered the bank to cut the interest rate to 3%.
Nowadays, most of the depositors in the bank have enjoyed the sweetness of interest, but most of them still only deposit for one month. When they saw the bank cut interest rates, they immediately beat their chests and regretted that they did not directly deposit for one year like others, and missed the New Year. Deposit opportunity with 5% interest rate.
Just when these people were feeling regretful, some kind people introduced them to bonds.
In fact, the bonds Li Wei is making now are no different from deposits. They have fixed interest rates and are not tradable. They are not as complicated as later generations. As for whether to open transfer transactions in the future, it can be considered based on the situation.
Nowadays, the main task of banks is to absorb deposits, plus the money printed by the bankers themselves, to buy the gold and silver of the rich.
In this process, the depositors gained interest, the banks and bankers gained gold and silver, which stabilized the value of the banknotes. The only ones who lost money were the rich. When the price of gold and silver returned to normal, they would find that they had lost nearly half of their money. family property!
Even if they are smart enough to see through everything, they still have to sell because there are still taxes urging them to hand over treasure money, and the convenience of banknotes is one of the reasons why they are willing to accept it. Otherwise, they would not continue to acquire treasures privately. money.
(End of chapter)
